


The Wrong Mile

by Bedlamwolf



Category: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dead Peter Parker, Gen, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:20:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21855145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bedlamwolf/pseuds/Bedlamwolf
Summary: There's been a man running around dressed like Spiderman. Problem is, Spiderman gave his life to stop Thanos, so it's not him. Which means they have an imposter, and the last thing anyone wants is for Tony to find out.Meanwhile Miles is regretting making fun of Peter. This being in a new dimension is a lot harder than it looked!
Comments: 34
Kudos: 269





	The Wrong Mile

Being back in New York City was admittedly hard on Clint. There were just too many memories in this city, both good and bad. Most days when he was far  _ far _ away from the place he'd once called home he could look back on the good times with something that was almost fondness. Other days… well. Ronin didn't often take jobs in this city for a reason.

Unfortunately there had been no convenient excuse for being half a world away when the request to take out a drug cartel staying in good old NYC had come in. No, Clint had foolishly been in the state anyway seeing Laura and the kids. Like many marriages their fake-marriage hadn't survived the reverse-snap. She and the kids hadn't changed at all in the five or so years they'd been Snapped and Clint most definitely had. That was all right though since the two of them hadn't ever really been a  _ thing _ , and despite his definite darker leanings now Laura was still a good friend. A friend who wouldn't let him wallow and had insisted on him visiting for Natasha's birthday. He couldn't say no. Who else was going to tell Nate how cool his godmother had been?

It hurt just as much as it had the year before, but it was a pain he deserved. It should have been him…

So Barton had taken the job and perhaps executed it and the cartel with a bit more brutal efficiency than was strictly called for. Didn't really matter much because it was  _ cathartic _ with the added bonus of there being one less drug syndicate around.

"A bit messy, though. Nat would be so disappointed with me leaving all this evidence," he muttered to himself as he sheathed his katana. Just in time too, sirens sounded in the distance. "Time to go." The former Avenger leapt up, catching a fire escape ladder and pulling himself up with a grace he still retained through sheer stubbornness. The day Clint Barton couldn't manage something as simple as that was the day he gave up being a vigilante for good.

****

With a well earned sigh Barton unlocked the door to his current safehouse, whistling for Lucky. He wasn't concerned when his dog didn't come running right away. Mostly because a quick look into the flat showed exactly why his dog hadn't answered.

"Traitor," he told the one eyed mutt with no heat as he walked past their guest and poured himself a cup of coffee. "Want some?"

"No," his unwelcome guest replied, still scratching Lucky behind the ears.

Clint grunted, turning to lean on the counter as he nursed his cup of coffee. For a moment he just observed his guest. The past few years had been kinder to Barnes than it had been to others. Or at least it  _ looked _ that way thanks in part to the whole super soldier thing. His eyes at least weren't as haunted as he remembered.

At long last Barnes spoke. "You need to stay in the city."

Clint let out a laugh, "In case you missed the memo I don't take orders anymore. Not even from Captain America."

Barnes shook his head, "Sam is Captain this month."

"Even more reason for me not to listen to you," Clint replied. He refused to admit he wanted to know why.

"A few of those thugs you went after got away," Bucky said at long last.

"I'm sure it's nothing you can't handle. Or Sam. Or whoever," he replied, petting Lucky as his dog finally seemed to remember he was there. Clicking his tongue he started to rummage around for something to give Lucky for dinner. "You staying for food?" he asked. He and Barnes might not exactly be on the same side anymore, but there was a reason the other man had a set of keys to all the safehouses.

"They were already caught." He heard Bucky say as the man came over.

Clint pulled a face, hidden inside the refrigerator. Looked like it was takeout again. "So? What's the problem then?" he sniped as he closed the refrigerator, already dialing the local pizza place.

" _ This."  _ Bucky shoved his own phone in his face. 

It took a second for what he was seeing to register. As it did the pizza place picked up. "Uh… large pie, extra cheese, pepperoni and mushrooms. Granger street, Linon building, apartment 431. Thanks," Clint said on autopilot before hanging up the phone.

He zoomed in on the picture. Three low level grunts hung halfway up a traffic light, a white substance binding them together and to the pole. A note was glued to them with the same substance that read  _ 'No one was hurt in the apprehension of these criminals.`  _ which was in direct conflict to the blood running down one of the criminals arms from a cut. Clint was pretty sure he'd been the one to cut the man so he ignored that in favor of looking at Bucky. "Is this real?"

"Sam took the picture."

So it was real. It couldn't be. "... He's dead. I was there." Clint shuddered, mind flashing to that horrible moment when the elation of having won; of having  _ beaten Thanos _ came with the realization at  _ what cost _ . Thousands of lives brought back didn't seem worth the cost of one teenaged hero that  _ shouldn't have been there _ . Of Tony promising Spiderman they'd won and that everything was going to be all right. He handed the phone back. He'd stay. No one disrespected his teammates,  _ especially _ not the only one of them that really  _ was _ a good person. "Does Tony know?"

"No," Bucky replied, "There's been some talk around Manhattan. Sightings of someone. This was the first bit of proof we could find."

"So you want me to find this imposter?"

"Preferably before Stark finds out. Shuri's keeping an eye out for any more sightings and Rhodey said he'll keep Tony away from the news." Because it would only be a matter of time before this was on the front page.

Clint sighed again. "Fine. I'll start looking, right after dinner."

****

"Uuuunnng…." Miles moaned, rolling over and pulling the tattered blanket over his head. Once again it had been a long night of stopping crime and trying to find a way to get home. Honestly he had all the respect for Gwen and the others. This landing in another world was  _ hard _ .

Definitely made harder by the fact that Spiderman was dead in this world. Again. Was it Miles? Did he somehow cause this?

...No, that was paranoid even for him. Besides, this reality's Spiderman died saving like, the whole universe or something a little over two years ago. At least, that's what he'd been able to piece together at the local library. Miles hadn't stayed long enough to find out what had happened since he'd really gone to see if there was a this-universe-him in or out of the suit.

There wasn't. He hadn't been able to track down his mother, though his dad was still a cop and Uncle Aaron was still alive. His first impulse was to go to his dad or uncle, but Miles realized pretty quickly that wouldn't go over so well. And since he hadn't had any luck getting in touch with his other spider-friends there weren't a lot of options. Which was how the displaced Spiderman found himself living in a half destroyed and abandoned building for the better part of a week. Judging by the damage Miles assumed it had occurred in whatever event had killed this world's Spiderman.

Groaning again Miles sat up, stretching out the kinks. Sleeping on the floor wasn't ideal, but it didn't feel right to go to a shelter. He wasn't  _ homeless _ just displaced. All right, so he technically  _ was _ homeless. At least he wasn't dressed like some hobo  _ and _ he wasn't glitching. Come to think of it, why  _ wasn't _ he glitching? No, better not to question it….

Still, he needed to find  _ somewhere _ better to stay. Especially if he was going to have to find his own way back home. He'd already tried the Parker address in Queens, but it looked like this world's Spiderman didn't live there. So… that was a bust. True there were supposed to be other heros in the universe that he could go to, but did any of them know about the multi-verse?

Not to mention where he was going to find them. "All right, back to the library I guess. See if I can track down any of these guys to help me. If not I guess I'll have to try the Doc. I  _ really _ hope it doesn't come to that," Miles grumbled as he pulled the hoodie and shorts he'd found in a clothes drop on over his suit. It wasn't the best disguise but since he probably didn't exist here, it should be fine. "This would be easier if I could get my phone to work…"

The streets were crowded with people leaving work, meaning he'd overslept. Not too surprising since he had spent most of last night stopping petty crime while keeping an eye out for anything familiar. Some things, landmarks for instance, were the same. Other things weren't. Like the PDNY was the NYPD here, which was just  _ so _ not cool. There were other things, mostly small, but each one made Miles cringe internally while also wondering if the others had felt like this in  _ his _ world. Spider-Noir, Spider-Pig and SP//DR he didn't think so, their world's were pretty different. But Spiderwoman and Hobo-Spiderman totally had the same problem he thought.

At least his money looked enough like what everyone was using to pass. It felt different to Miles and he knew it was wrong to pass it off, but a spider-kid had to eat, and it was still better than stealing. Right? It wasn't like he'd even be able to find enough food in a soup kitchen, anyway. Though he was going to have to start trying, since he was pretty sure the five hot dogs he was buying at the little stand did it for his cash.

"Make that… four hotdogs," Miles sighed, looking down at the small clump of bills in his hand. Two dollars short for five. "And a soda?"

"Here kid." The man passed over the hotdogs and drink, "Drink's on the house."

"Thank you, sir!" Miles replied, trying to juggle the hotdogs and drink without dropping them. Lucky for him he had the ultimate sticky fingers.

The hotdogs were good, made better by just how hungry the teen was. As he ate Miles caught sight of the time from a TV displaying the evening news in one of the storefronts. 6:00pm. The library closed at seven and was at least a half hour walk from where he was. Shoving the last hotdog in his mouth Miles made for the nearest alleyway, tossing the used wrappers and empty can in a dumpster because Spiderman didn't litter -- even if he didn't always have time to recycle -- before scaling the wall. Tucking his shirt and shorts together he webbed them into a makeshift bag and took off across the rooftops. He'd have to hurry if he wanted to make it with enough time to do any research before starting patrol tonight.

Swinging up onto the rooftops Miles slapped a sticker onto the water tank on the top of the roof out of habit more than anything else. Still, it would serve as a landmark for where he left his stuff if nothing else.

******

Clint was getting sick of waiting on the rooftops for some mysterious imposter who may or may not even be real to show up. Even if he was real, it was honestly unlikely that the guy was going to go conveniently swinging past right where Clint was -- something in a black and red suit went streaking by, carried by a thin thread of webbing -- "Never mind."

It looked like his target was going North, and Ronin took off after them. At first it didn't look like he was going to catch the figure, but then the guy stopped to put a sticker on the side of a gargoyle. "Now that's just tacky," Clint huffed to himself as he landed on the same roof. "It's not enough you're trespassing, you gotta go be a vandal, too?" he quipped as he drew his katana.

"W-wha??" The person spun around to face him. "I wasn't doing anything! I swear, the sticker was there when I got here!" they lied poorly.

"Right. Either way, I've got you for trespassing. You gonna go the easy way, or the hard way?"

Not surprisingly the imposter bolted for the far side of the roof. Ronin instinctually swung his katana, barely glancing across the guy's arm. Which lit up like a Christmas tree and freaking  _ zapped him _ .

"Ahhh!! Holy shit killer ninja! I just did some graffiti, man!!!" the imposter yelped, flinging himself onto the next rooftop.

Clint watched him go as he resheathed his katana. If a glancing blow had him still tingling a direct hit could have stopped his heart. Luckily he had brought his bow. Swinging it off his back in a practiced motion he sighted his opponent, pausing just briefly to tap his comm unit.

_ "Clint?" _ Sam's voice answered, meaning Bucky was out playing Captain.

"Hey, uh. Does Thor have a kid who has a thing for Spiderman?" He fired, arrow cutting the line of webbing and sending the faker onto a rooftop a short distance away. Clint took off running, glad he'd kept up on his cardio.

_ "Not that I know of--?" _ Sam said in a confused air.  _ "Wait, does this have to do with that guy?" _

"The guy dressed up in a knock off spider suit?" Another arrow prevented the said guy from dodging left and Clint tried a haymaker only to be zapped again. He grunted in pain, "Yeah."

"I'm sorry mister!"

_ "Wait, you're telling me he can control thunder?" _

"Maybe," he told Sam, taking off after the fleeing spider again, "Stop shocking me!"

_ "Do you need a hand?" _

Clint fired an arrow as he leapt to the next roof, cutting the fleeing faker's line again. "No," he told Sam, "I got this."

"I will when you stop chasing me!" the black and red spider snapped, giving Clint the impression that he was glaring at him.

"Then stop running," Clint replied, aiming a bit to the left of the guy. He didn't want to hurt him; he just wanted answers. But after being shocked twice in as many minutes he wasn't going to take any chances. It was better to play it safe and take a stance at a distance.

Or it  _ would _ have been a better idea if the guy couldn't go  _ INVISIBLE _ . "That's not what I meant!"

_ "What happened?" _

"Does Loki maybe have a kid that can go invisible?" The gravel roof crunched and Clint took off after the sound of his fleeing opponent. As he ran he switched to his trick arrowheads, hoping he had a few net ones left. He'd kind of had a bit too much fun using them fishing last week.

_ "He turned invisible?" _

"Yep." He fired a smoke arrow in the direction he thought the guy was heading, spooking him into a better direction, smoke giving away his movements.

_ "I'm calling Bucky." _

"Don't you dare. I got this." The next arrow he fired was snatched out of the air, meaning the guy had pretty good reflexes. "Ok, maybe call Bucky," he allowed as the arrow was snapped in half with one hand.

Or he assumed snapped in one hand, since he still couldn't see the guy. But that didn't matter right now. Taking aim at the falling arrow he shot off the last net arrow he had left in his quiver.

"OH COME ON!" the still invisible figure shouted as they hit the roof entangled in the net.

Clint allowed himself a smirk as he readied an arrow with knock out gas as he approached the net. There was a flicker, and then the black and red suit was visible. "Gotcha, Thor-spawn!"

"... Wut?" The masked head cocked to the side in obvious confusion.

"Thor? You know… God of thunder?"

"... You're crazy. Aren't you? That's what this is. Some crazy guy pretending to be a ninja -- do Ninja's even use bows? -- and I --"

"That's an excellent question." Clint refused to let his annoyance show, but he was less than pleased with Tony showing up. He wasn't surprised, though. It had only been a matter of time before Tony Stark found out about the guy running around like Spiderman.

"Tony…"

"Here's another one. Who's this, Legolas?"

"Not your problem, Tony."

"I think I'll be the judge of that," Stark said, setting down on the roof. "You know, I'm sensing a lot of copyright infringement here, what do you think?" Iron Man began pacing, "And if we were talking about copyright issues, you'd think I'd be the first person any of you losers would come to."

****

Miles was torn between getting out of the net and watching the two in front of him fail at adulting. He knew that his invisibility had failed at this point. That was the least of his worries what with the crazy ninja chasing him and now some crazy robot joining in.

Getting out of the net would be the smartest thing, but he was pretty sure the ninja at least could catch up with him again even without a robot helping. It… was a pretty cool robot, though.

"Now really isn't the time, Tony," the ninja said, keeping an arrow leveled at Miles.

"See, I tend to disagree. I think right now is the perfect time. I mean, when would a better time to talk about the knock-off Spiderman be than when we have the guy right here?"

Ok, now that was offensive. "Hey! I'm not a knockoff!" And now they were both looking at him. He coughed and tried again, "I'm not a knock-off, yo."

"Excuse me, are you talking to us?" the robot asked, tapping its glowing chest piece.

"Yes? I mean. Of course." Miles debated if he would lose cool points trying to stand in the net or stay seated. Sitting seemed safer.

The robot looked at the ninja, "Do you hear this guy?" The ninja didn't seem amused. "Look, I don't know who the hell you think you are--"

"Uh." Miles glanced down, he was visible and definitely wearing the suit so… "Spiderman?"

They stared at him. For a robot that couldn't emote as well as SP//DR this one did mocking disbelief pretty well. He cleared his throat and tried again, attempting to sound mature. "Yes. I'm. Uh. Spiderman. The new one." He tossed in a little wave. "Hi."

The ninja snorted, "Spiderman. You. You're what, 12?"

"No, just. No.  _ That _ is not Spiderman." The robot turned to look at him, "You're not even a very good  _ fake _ . What you are is some cheap Hong Kong knockoff that couldn't even get the colors right."

Miles sat up straighter at that. "Excuse you?"

"You heard me, Chinatown. Spiderman's colors are red and  _ blue _ , granted, not as classy as my red and gold ensemble, but there you go."

"Are you…." Miles started standing up and managing not to trip on the net, "saying Spiderman can't be black?" He shrugged the net off and crossed his arms, "Yo man, that's racist."

The robot paused and actually managed to sound awkward, "I was referring to the suit of course."

"The kid has a point though, Stark," the ninja said, lowering his weapon.

"See? Even the ninja thinks you're racist."

"First, he's not a ninja. Second, I'm  _ not _ being racist!" the robot replied, "and, not that it actually  _ matters _ , but the Spiderman  _ was  _ white. And nerdy. Like that Weird Al song."

"So just because the old Spiderman was white I've got to be? Dude, pretty sure no one told the radioactive spider that." The not-ninja snorted, so that was definitely a win.

"You can't be serious? You can't be taking this punk's side, Barton." Tony pouted really well for a machine.

"I'm not. He's just funny."

"He's not funny. He's stealing the our kid's origin story--"

"No I'm not." Miles said. "What? I got bitten by a spider, too. It's New York, it's not that uncommon."

"You…. Might be right about that. But you're still a fake."

"Am not!"

"I don't know who's being more of a child here, Tony. You or the kid," Barton said.

"The kid, obviously. He's the one playing dressup."

"For the last time, I'm  _ not _ playing dressup!" Miles snapped. "And uh. Not a kid."

"Real convincing, kid," Barton said, wiggling his fingers. "Mask off."

"What? No!"

"Yeah I'm with Barton on this. Mask off, kiddo."

"No!" Miles said again, backing up defensively.

"If you run I'm just gonna have to chase you again," Barton said.

"I only  _ let _ you catch me."

"Right. Maybe. But this time I got the tin can with me, and I'm pretty sure your little invisibility trick won't work."

"Wait, he can go invisible?"

"And apparently shoot lighting."

"That's new. We sure Thor doesn't have a kid?"

"It's not-- it doesn't work like that!" Miles protested. He didn't shoot lighting. Just zapped people. With electricity. Somehow.

"Right. Anyway, my suit can track heat signatures  _ and _ is lighting proof, so I got you covered, Clint." The robot took a step forward. "No running."

"Haven't you two ever heard of the sanctity of secret identities?" Miles yelped, dodging the robot's grabbing hand.

"No." It replied.

"Don't look at me, I don't wear a mask," Barton huffed, narrowly missing his grab at the mask as Miles danced out of the way.

"Well, I do! Stop it!"

"Look, I'll make it easy for you," The robot said, stepping close. Its face folded in on itself, revealing an aging white guy with a goatee. "I'll unmask myself so it's fair."

"Ahhh!" Miles yelped, caught by surprise. "What the hell! I thought you were a robot!"

"Why would you think that? Haven't you ever heard of Iron Man before?"

"No?"

"This is fascinating. Really. But mask off, kiddo," Barton said, taking advantage of his distraction to get the mask off.

"Yo! Dude! Not cool!" He tried to cover his face with his hands.

There was silence for a moment and Miles risked looking up. The guy apparently called Iron Man recovered first. "Alright! I'm sorry, looking back on it, it was pretty racist. I've learned from my mistake, though. Promise I'll be reevaluating my internal bias."

"Who the hell are you, kid?" Barton asked.

"I'm Spiderman," Miles repeated. "Just… not from this world."

Instead of disbelief that he had totally been expecting Tony sighed, "Great. Someone stole a Spiderman. Come on kid, let's get you back."

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure if I'm going to continue this. Please R&r to let me know your thoughts on this!


End file.
